I’m very sorry about your celiac disease, but I’m glad that at leat you now know about it.
I hope you’d find a way to live a life as normal and as fulfilling as possible under the circumstances.
I quite agree that it’s best to follow your interests and not fight them.
In any case, we are all rooting for you! 
Thanks to both of you. At least there’s a lot of options nowadays for people with it. It definitely makes sense of the last 25 years though. It’s a 6-12 month healing process apparently and funnily enough now that I’ve stopped gluten since Thursday night, my appetite has skyrocketed. I guess it’s the additional caloric demand for the initial healing process. At least I don’t have a severe case that can land me in hospital like some people.
8日12月2025年
レブル: 8
習得済み単語数 (Migaku): 2587
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コメント: I’m thinking of reorienting my Japanese study almost entirely toward completing WK for the moment. When I added Japanese back to my language learning “stack” 50 days ago, the goal was to focus on WK and some ancillary material while continuing with my central goal of achieving reading fluency in a few European languages. But my innate desire to learn Japanese took over and I found myself spending more time reading, watching content, and sentence mining. But I feel the drift in my European project and want to reestablish that focus.
So for now I plan to largely drop 音声・画像 beyond anime for pleasure, and make no daily commitment to 読書. My central focus will be WK and the Anki kanji deck, burning down my Migaku material, and completing the N5 and N4 Bunpro grammar decks.
Meanwhile, I’ve begun my program of establishing a baseline Spanish vocabulary in Migaku via cognates with English, Latin, and French. Once that’s complete, I’ll dabble in some Spanish material. I expect that I’ll be reading Spanish material fairly comfortably in about 3-6 months, by which time I’ll also be on my third or fourth French book.
After that (say June/July), I’ll be close to finishing WK and the kanji deck, will have N5-N3 complete on Bunpro, and will be able to adapt to my circumstances: double down on consolidating what I have, add German or Italian (or Latin if Migaku lets me create cards for it by then), or whatever. I should also have healed almost entirely from celiac disease so should be in a stronger baseline health position.
Maybe I’ll start tracking these other goals here as well, since this study log has proven to be a fantastic anchor since I started it.
I’m really glad that you were able to find that out without having to live with it unknowingly for the rest of your life. Sometimes this step is as crucial as what comes afterward. 
This is good news and I’m happy that it’s not a process over a very extended period of time.
We’re here for you and are rooting for you
You got this
I really like your reflection a lot 
You seem to have given it a lot of thought and know exactly what you want to do and how to do it per se.
I think you’ll enjoy Spanish and you won’t find it hard, since you already have knowledge in a language, which shares the same root per se. It’s an interesting language for sure 
I would definitely recommend that, if it’s something you feel comfortable with. It’s amazing what a simple log can achieve 
You also have great aspirations for languages and it’s gonna be an amazing journey for sure
WK レブル: 8
習得済み単語数 (Migaku): 2592
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習得済み単語数: 10,811
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習得済み単語数: 1413
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コメント: I’ve updated the log to include the other languages I’m actively learning, following the same structure as for Japanese. I’ve kept Japanese the primary language for the categories, both for consistency and because Japanese is the only language I am interesting in using rather than simply reading.
I like the new structure and languages
The amount of already learnt words in the other languages is astonishing 
I’m very proud of you 
Thanks!
European languages are a breeze since there’s so many cognates. You just have to learn the spelling and pronunciation norms, and you can carry literally thousands of words over.
German will be a bit more challenging. I’m curious how helpful it would be for Scandinavian languages - once I know German, will I be able to pick up thousands of Swedish words easily, for instance?
At some point I need to try to get Latin and Greek codified and added, but right now they aren’t in Migaku so I’ll have to use Anki. A project for when I have some time, maybe over the holidays.
WK レブル: 8
習得済み単語数 (Migaku): 2629
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習得済み単語数: 10,815
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習得済み単語数: 1734
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コメント: Sixth day gluten free. It’s crazy how many health improvements I’ve seen so far. I’ve started sleeping deeply again and having extremely vivid and meaningful dreams. In fact last night was part 2 of the dream I had the night before, which is nuts.
I’m really happy for you
Keep those health improvements coming 
You’ll be surprised by the benefits and improvements sleep will bring too
You got this 
Out of curiosity, Is there a reason for pursuing so many languages? 
I think if you’re learning German from English, it should be doable per se, challenging, but doable. Pronunciation in general is gonna be tricky, but I think you might benefit from getting a bit into phonetics and maybe the IPA, which might help making pronunciation easier? it might be worth a shot. I’ve been thinking about it lately, but I don’t have the time currently nor the effort 
The transition into Scandinavian languages is gonna be interesting. I don’t think it’s similar to when you jump from French to Spanish. I think the spoken part will be easier (at least how the words are spoken), while the written part might look scarier. After some tweaks and adaptation, you can jump from German to Swedish. The jump between Scandinavian languages itself should easier and uncomplicated (I assume).
You want to learn Greek and Latin, too? 
How do you manage to keep so many languages in mind?
I’m so glad to hear it!
Best of luck at defeating the glu-天狗 and may the Great Cat of Health return to you!
WK レブル: 8
習得済み単語数 (Migaku): 2646
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習得済み単語数: 10,866
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習得済み単語数: 1734
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コメント: I spent a good bit of today busy with work and then going down a rabbit hole of Anki importing and exporting. But I’ve landed in a place where I can add words to a google sheet and then import them into a specific deck. This way, I can compile a custom Latin deck with relative ease and have the cards looking exactly the way I want them. I’ll be able to do the same with Greek, and I’m thinking of starting with Homeric Greek. And I’ve set up a Grok thread programmed as a language tool to spit out contextual and interpretative descriptions for me.
When these languages are added to Migaku, I can then export the entire word list and transition over. Importantly, this will make it very easy for me to continue studies in these languages on the basis of the immersive principles that have worked so well for French and Japanese, and are helping me edge into Spanish.
Here’s a sample card from my Latin deck. It has all the information I need imported directly from the Google sheet.
I actually already learned Latin and Greek to intermediate level years ago, but they’ve slipped. I’d probably still be able to get through some Latin material but I need work to get them to a sound basis, particularly vocabulary.
As for why so many languages, I’ve been fascinated with languages since I was read The Hobbit in primary school. The runes on the map intrigued me. My dad also painted model kits from Japan, so I grew up seeing Japanese in the instruction manuals for Robotech kits and the like lol. Though I didn’t take to learning French in high school, I began to learn Tolkien’s Quenya when I was 15 and from that truly was born my love of languages. I began to create a few of my own and try to express aesthetics through them.
Since then, I’ve dabbled in a large range of languages and made decent progress in Greek, Latin, and Japanese over the years, and now French. But I always faced two obstacles: first, inconsistent methodology; second, a tendency to restart.
The inconsistent method at least taught me what doesn’t work for me. The method I’ve settled on works great, though at the price of many inefficient years. I was never very good at learning how to learn until about 10 years ago, and it was Wanikani and the old forum that taught me the foundation of the method that stuck: acquire vocabulary first of all, then go from there. I learned thousands of words and hundreds of kanji on WK back in 2014 before I touched any Japanese immersion, but when I did I was able to read NHK Easy pretty comfortably. By contrast, my Latin and Greek were always hampered by poor vocabulary - at least until last year when I made a huge effort to increase Latin vocabulary, which paid off. But I set that aside earlier this year, and that brings me to the second issue.
My second great flaw has been restarting. Without getting into the details, the is tied to a streak of self-destructive tendency I have related to my teens and my core identity. With the aid of years of self-analysis through journaling, discussions, and finally AI, I’ve managed to dig pretty much to the bottom of the issue, and think I’ve got it resolved now. But for 25 years I’ve had this compulsion to purge anything that is in any way imperfect when it relates to a core desire of mine - an extreme perfectionism that manifests not so much as obsessive control or mental breaks, but as periodic purification rituals. And thus, for every language I’ve ever studied I’ve restarted a large number of times, periodically sweeping away books, Anki decks, restarting my WK level, you name it. I’ve gone extended periods of not studying because I deem the language in particular or language study in general to be a hopelessly imperfect part of my life path, sacrificing it for “more practical matters”. It’s a fairly sad story if I were to get deep into it. And this hasn’t only been a feature of language study.
So anyway, I’ve always had that “polyglot itch”, but my teenage development set me up with two flaws that have taken 25 years to work through. Now that they’re resolved, I feel pretty comfortable consolidating where I’m at and progressing with language study simply out of love for languages.
As for how I maintain what I have, like I said I haven’t maintained Latin or Greek much. I didn’t have a method for maintaining anything before now. At this point, I basically make reviews my core daily commitment. Nothing else is an absolute. So long as I get through my reviews for whatever decks I have, I’m fine. Then I set aside times to do the additional stuff according to taste: for instance, I was reading and watching French daily, then shifted to Japanese, and as of the other day have switched back to French, though this time focusing on finishing the Jules Verne book. I’m letting my interest lead me at the moment.
I also make time for it. I don’t spend hours on social media, largely ignore the news now, have a flexible job that I’m good at, so I can blast through my work and free up hours during work days, and I’ve lost interest in video games for the most part.
I also strive to establish systems to automate certain things. Switching to Migaku is an example of that. Though the app still has a long way to go before it is stable and expansive, it has functionality that integrates tools I need and radically reduces my time investment in unhelpful aspects of language learning, like the time it takes to create an Anki card. So I make Migaku a core feature of my language system. Similarly, as I said in today’s log post, I’ve set up a system of Latin and Greek Anki card generation. This will make it much easier for me to develop, track, and edit decks for these languages. And lastly I try to be systematic with my time, aiming to knock out as many of my card decks early in the day as possible. I don’t always succeed, like today, but I’m increasingly doing well with it. I double up my time as much as possible, doing reviews in the shower or while watching TV or whatever. When I start painting Warhammer models again soon, I’ll double that up with Japanese immersion some days.
So I guess the overarching theme of what I’m saying is that the entire thing is birthed in a childhood intrigue with languages and has evolved through significant struggle to a point where I’m fairly adept at establishing systems for efficient and focused study that integrate with my daily needs.
I briefly went the opposite direction, from Scandinavian to German, and my impression is that it was helpful, but not as helpful as I was hoping. Actually, I was surprised by Dutch, which I also dabbled in a few years ago, which seemed to have more cognates with Scandinavian than German, just at a glance (totally unscientific observation).
(But to be fair, neither my German nor Dutch are very strong, so I’m not the best judge. I haven’t seriously studied them in a few years and have decided not to study another germanic language until my Swedish output is better. (Swedish is one of two foreign languages I actually care about talking/writing in, alongside French, and I don’t want my brain pulling out a German word when I’m writing Swedish… which is another answer to the question I guess: they have enough in common that this is a concern))
Anyway, it’s still really cool and impressive you have that many words tracked, even for European languages with loads of cognates. Do these numbers include cognates you’ve marked as “known” in Migaku? I can imagine the process being super satisfying.
Can relate to this a lot! 
Just like in your case, I had a lot of problems in life because of this…
I’m glad you’ve managed to identify the problem and find a way to combat it – I’m trying to do the same!
Anyway, best of luck with your studies and other cativities! 
This is quite impressive and seems quite enjoyable
Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed and heartfelt reply
It takes courage to write about such experiences and I appreciate that a lot. 
There’s a lot of insight to be gained and a lot that can be learned from your experience.
I’m glad that you were able to identify the problems and to work through them, even if that took a lot of time, it’ll always be worth it at the end 
Such a love for languages should be cherished. I think I might have something similar, but it’s not as strong as yours. It’s just amazing what you’re capable of achieving and I’m proud of you
I’ll try to learn as much as possible from your reply and I appreciate you sharing this wisdom
Thank you again
There’s a lot that I can write (and should), but I won’t be able to do that anytime soon unfortunately
That’s helpful information. I’ve heard that German doesn’t have as many connections to Scandinavian languages as say French and Italian have, but have never specifically looked into it. It seems German took a radically different developmental course, but that’s all second hand knowledge for me.
It’s definitely satisfying to see the result of my French vocabulary work. When I plug Jules Verne into my Migaku reader and regularly see the page comprehension at 95-100%, it’s a HUGE boost and motivator. And I can breeze through most pages with only a few lookups. There’s still significant adaptation occurring in reading comprehension, and I sometimes need to slow down significantly to parse my way through the syntax, but I can pretty easily handle it now. I’m also not aiming for 100% comprehension as I read - I’m going hard on the comprehensible input method and aiming to grasp the meaning rather than attempting to parse every nuance of the syntax as per a more traditional language learning approach. It’s both more enjoyable and more motivating.
The numbers include cognates. For French, it’s several thousand cognates from English and Latin. For Spanish, it’s entirely cognates at the moment. I’m basically going through a Wikitionary page that displays Spanish words derived from Latin and marking any word I am comfortable saying I know as “known”. Spanish is particularly easy to deduce from the Latin root, and my French reinforcement of the Latin sense is very helpful. I’ll be curious to see whether Italian is more difficult, because just visually it seems to me that Italian can look quite different from the Latin root word.
If it’s any help, I used Grok to help psychoanalyze myself. I plugged in a boatload of information and it really helped nail down the core issues and their development and influence. It accurately predicted certain behaviors that I might have had, and indeed I had them. I’ve found it helps to tell it to ask you questions that might help pin down causes and paths, and then you just spill your answers out to each question and let it put things together. But as I said earlier, I’ve also spent years analyzing myself via journals and see the AI as a useful tool in this broader endeavor. I can see a situation where a person could use it uncritically, and being led astray by its theories.
